WaPo Buries 97-0 Rejection of Obama Budget in Story Focused on Senate Rejection of Ryan Plan
By Ken Shepherd | May 26, 2011 | 11:36
There were two budget votes yesterday in the Senate, but the Washington Post would rather you only focus on the one that got 40 more votes than Obama's.
Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) plan was rejected by 57 senators, including 5 Republicans. But President Obama's budget blueprint was rejected by 97 senators and supported by zero.
Washington Post reporters covering the development waited until the 17th paragraph in their 22-paragraph May 26 front page story to note the outcome of Obama budget vote:
Story Continues Below Ad ↓Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) then called up Obama’s initial 2012 budget proposal for consideration. Both parties had criticized the plan, saying it would offer only a minor reduction in the national debt. The president has since put forward a new blueprint that would shave $4 trillion from projected deficits over 12 years. With Obama himself abandoning his initial budget proposal, not a single senator voted for it.
As Alexander Bolton of The Hill noted yesterday:
The president’s budget called for ending tax cuts for the wealthy and a three-year domestic spending freeze, saving an estimated $1.1 trillion over 10 years. Democratic senators at the time called it “an important step forward”, “a good start” and a “credible blueprint.”
No Democratic senator was willing to support it, however, after Obama discussed a more ambitious plan at George Washington University to save $4 trillion over 12 years. Republicans criticized his speech for lacking detail.
So Democrats have no budget blueprint to work off of for fiscal year 2012, just a speech President Obama made that laid out some broad policy goals but has no specifics.
Yet to the Washington Post, the real story as how the "GOP sticks to Medicare proposal" even though "Unease remains after House defeat in N.Y."
Post reporters Paul Kane, Amy Goldstein and Peter Wallsten did note in paragraph 10 that "The Democrats... are continuing to bash Ryan's approach and are not proposing major, new ideas of their own."
# # #
- Ken Shepherd's blog
- Login to post comments
Comments
not what it seems
Submitted by Agnostic on Thu, 05/26/2011 - 12:05pm.
Obama's budget proposal was already killed by the administration itself so there was no reason for any party to vote for it. However, there is equally no reason to vilify the Ryan budget because of this vote - of the five Republicans voting against the budget four were barely Republicans (though one did force Congress to do a 'midnight vote' near a holiday to get healthcare passed through a loophole and of course the Republican who did not think the cuts were deep enough.
"Obama's budget proposal was
Submitted by classicliberal2 on Thu, 05/26/2011 - 12:44pm.
"Obama's budget proposal was already killed by the administration itself so there was no reason for any party to vote for it."
Exactly.
Getting the Senate to vote on the Ryan plan was, in a sense, a political stunt. It's unlikely the Ryan plan could poll out of single digits in the reddest states in the U.S., among those who are informed of its particulars, and unlike so many other minor issues over which the political culture obsesses, it will incite people to work strongly against those who support it. That's why Demos so desperately wanted to make Senate Repubs vote on it. I'm surprised they took the bait.
CL2,
Submitted by Agnostic on Thu, 05/26/2011 - 1:36pm.
I don't think they had a choice in taking the bait because this is the Senate where Sen. Reid still has a majority.
Nearly everything in the house is for show or for politics because nothing they do will get through the Senate (bipartisan uselessness aside). I'm just glad the Representatives are continuing to work even though they realize that in reality they have no real hope of making changes. It will be good exercise should the Republicans ever win both Houses of Congress - perhaps they will remember not to spend, charge, borrow and print.
Oh.
Submitted by Tenebrous on Thu, 05/26/2011 - 10:21pm.
You think the Ryan plan could not poll out of the single digits?
Hahahahahaha. Wow, that's a -- oh? You were serious?
Visions and Principles blog
Surprising
Submitted by jon_torlin on Thu, 05/26/2011 - 12:05pm.
I'm not surprised by 4 of the five Republican senators, but the 5th one being Sen. Paul was both surprising and disappointing.
-Jon
jon_t
Submitted by Agnostic on Thu, 05/26/2011 - 1:38pm.
Sen. Paul probably voted knowing there were not enough votes to pass the budget and made the statement that the cuts were not deep enough.
Maybe
Submitted by jon_torlin on Thu, 05/26/2011 - 11:58pm.
Be that as it may, it doesn't look good that the other 4 Republicans were RINOs. And it's the 4 that you would expect them to vote the way they did. Doesn't matter what his reason was, and I'm sure it is as you say it is, but he's the minority in this one and it doesn't look good. I was actually ready to label him as a RINO because of it. Haven't though.
-Jon